Montana Griz men's tennis team rallies to defeat Ball State 4-3

Finding himself trailing in the second set, and his Montana Grizzly tennis teammates also trailing Ball State 3-1 deep in the singles round, Alexander Canellopoulos broke the strings on his racket.

He quickly borrowed a teammates' racket but wasn't able to recover from the distraction, dropping the set to force a tiebreaker. With the match hanging in the balance, Canellopoulos switched rackets again, this time borrowing one from fellow Griz Zach Fisher.

The switch turned out to be just the thing both he and the Griz needed, as the junior from Greece rolled through the third set, sparking an epic comeback that saw UM win three-straight three-set matches to defeat the Cardinals 4-3 Thursday afternoon in Las Vegas.

"I've never seen that before. Not having your racket can really bother you, but he fought through it," said Interim Head Coach Jason Brown of Canellopoulos. "This was exactly what we needed going into conference. We went over some things prematch, and they came out and ticked every box. They battled. It was a great college tennis match, and I'm happy to get the win."

The victory puts Montana at 3-2 on the year and gives it a boost of confidence heading into the first Big Sky match of the season on Saturday against North Dakota in Missoula.